HEATHROW campaigner John Stewart says he is grateful for the publicity after being barred from the US over an alleged death threat against Barack Obama.

The HACAN chairman flew to New York on September 29 for a speaking tour about the successful fight he led against the third runway at Heathrow.

However, on his arrival at JFK Airport, he was escorted off the plane by six security guards and grilled by secret services chiefs about an alleged plot against the US president.

He was sent back to the UK the same day and has since been told by the US Embassy he will not be allowed to fly to the States for the tour, though no reason was given for this decision.

His expulsion has not prevented the tour, organised to help airport campaigners and climate change activists, from going ahead.

Mr Stewart has been appearing across the US via video-link and says the publicity from his run-in with US security has helped boost audiences, with up to 100 people attending one speech, as well as leading to extra speaking engagements.

"Apparently a mysterious phone call was made to JFK while I was in mid-air saying I had made threats against President Obama. Clearly there had been no such threats but it was an excuse for them to march me off the plane, question me and eventually send me home.

"This has given my little tour much more publicity than it would have had both here and in the US."

Mr Stewart believes the US feared he planned to spread the message about direct action, though this is something neither he nor HACAN have ever been involved with.

Probably the most famous example of direct action against Heathrow came in 2008, when members of campaign group Plane Stupid scaled the House of Commons to unfurl a banner.

Mr Stewart remains in the dark about who made the allegation against him but believes it may have been someone in the aviation industry who didn't want him spreading the message about the Heathrow campaign.

"I think there were probably two reasons I was turned back: confusion about what HACAN actually does and an ulterior motive from the aviation industry.

"One woman from the FBI couldn't get her head around the kind of action Plane Stupid's been involved in. She said 'maybe people will use guns to invade JFK'. I think maybe the authorities have branded Plane Stupid a terrorist group.

"I've been asked during these talks about the direct action element of the third runway campaign but at no point have I advocated such action.

"The funny thing is that I'd never made a trans-Atlantic flight before and I ended up making two in the space of 24 hours."

Mr Stewart has already spoken via Skype to campaigners in New York, Chicago and California about aviation and climate change issues. He is considering organising more talks.

A new book by John Stewart, Why Noise Matters, has just been published. The book looks at the impact of everything from aircraft to noise in the workplace on people's health and well-being.

In it, he claims aviation leaders fail to understand how dramatic an effect noise can have on people's lives.